Deep Creek Loop - Deep Creek Loop Trail in the Smoky Mountains


Trail Features:		Waterfalls, Wildflowers
Trail Location:		Deep Creek
Roundtrip Length:		4.6 miles
Total Elevation Gain:		579 feet
Avg. Elev Gain / Mile:		252 feet
Highest Elevation:		2437 feet
Trail Difficulty Rating:		5.76 (moderate)
Parking Lot Latitude:		35.4643
Parking Lot Longitude:		- 83.4342

Directions to Trailhead:

The trailhead for the Deep Creek Loop hike is located just north of Bryson City, North Carolina. From the intersection of Hwy 441 and Route 19 in Cherokee, drive 10 miles south on Rt. 19 to Everett Street in Bryson City. Turn right onto Everett and drive for 0.2 miles. Turn right onto Depot Street. After a short distance, take a left onto Ramseur Street and then an immediate right onto Deep Creek Road. Drive 2.3 miles to the park entrance, and then another 0.5 mile to the parking area for the Deep Creek Loop hike.

Trail Description:

The Deep Creek Trail was one of the first trails constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the newly legislated park in the early 1930s. The current Deep Creek Campground was also the site of the Deep Creek CCC Camp from 1933 to 1936.

In 1910 Horace Kephart, author of Our Southern Highlanders, lived for a short while with the Bob Barnett family in one of the last houses up Deep Creek. Until his death, as a result of an automobile accident in 1931, he used the old Bryson Place as his summertime camping spot. A permanent marker, near Backcountry Campsite 57 located just north of the junction between the Deep Creek Trail and Martins Gap Trail, commemorates the site.

The Deep Creek Loop hike begins from the Deep Creek Trailhead.

The trail begins as a wide path as it traces Deep Creek upstream. Rewards are almost immediate on this trail. Just 0.3 miles from the trailhead, 80-foot Toms Branch Falls (see picture to the right) spills down into the creek from the opposite bank. The park service has provided several benches for admiring these beautiful falls.

Wildflowers are also quite abundant in the Deep Creek area. As you proceed along your hike you'll find a variety of trilliums, blooming at different times throughout the spring, as well as foamflower, galax, crested dwarf iris, beard tongue, Solomon's seal, cinquefoil, bloodroot, bluets and blue-eyed grass. Jack-in-the-pulpit is also abundant, but is sometimes hard to locate among the wild geranium, clinton's lily and the large houstonia.

At 0.8 miles, the loop portion of this trail begins. Turn right here onto the Indian Creek Trail. After walking just 0.1 mile, there's a short spur trail on your left that takes you down to Indian Creek Falls (see photo). This is an awesome 45-foot falls. As you climb back to the main trail, and pass above the falls, you'll notice that Indian Creek Falls is actually more of a water slide than a true waterfall.

As you continue on the loop portion of the trail you'll soon cross over a footbridge. You'll notice that the Indian Creek valley, now on your right, is choked with rhododendron through this section.

At 1.4 miles the Thomas Divide trail splits off to the right. Continue going straight here.

At 1.7 miles the loop trail splits off of Indian Creek Trail. Turn left here. For the next half-mile you'll climb roughly 350 feet before reaching the Sunkota Ridge Trail junction. After turning onto this section of the loop you quickly leave behind the noise from creek, and, with the possible exception of the sound of your own heavy breathing, enter a noticeably much quieter valley.

As you climb to higher elevations on this hike you'll also begin to notice rhododendron, mountain laurel and flame azalea.

At the Sunkota Ridge junction continue going straight. From here it's all downhill until reaching Deep Creek. Upon reaching the Deep Creek Trail again, roughly 2.9 miles from the trailhead, turn left, cross the bridge, and follow the trail back to the parking lot. From this point onward the trail is relatively flat.

On your way back to the parking lot, at roughly 3.7 miles, you'll reach a spur trail which takes hikers to Juney Whank Falls. The spur travels about 1.2 miles to the falls, and then another 0.25 miles back to the parking lot.

If you bypass the Juney Whank Falls spur you'll exit the loop portion of the trail in just another 0.1 mile. Continue straight for another 0.8 miles to reach the parking lot.